Move over balayage: palm painting is the hair colour technique you need

The new way to highlight

Marie Claire marie claire & InStyle Senior Digital Beauty And Lifestyle Editor / March 03 2020

Instagram has spoken: balayage is so 2016. In its place? Palm painting – the new way to guarantee flawless, natural, “sun-kissed” hair colour.

Just ask the man who coined the term, colour director Marcos Verissimo. “Palm painting makes things simple, easy to work with and gives a beautiful result,” he says in the explanatory video uploaded to Instagram.

Instead of using foils or any of the “paraphernalia people used to work with,” Verissimo simply applies the product straight to the hair with gloved hands, using his palms to smooth it over strands.

It’s much like balayage, minus the brushes, which apparently gives a more natural result.

“Palm painting is a progressive play on the balayage technique, allowing colourists to be 100 per cent freehand, melting colouring into the hair with a smoother surface of the palm, allowing the blend to be soft in result,” Toni & Guy UK technical artistic director Georgie Mathers told Elle UK.

“This technique allows a much more natural, sun-kissed result.”

We know what we’ll be asking for at our next hair appointment.

Looking for a more multi-dimensional hair colour? 3D balayage is the genius technique that makes hair look thicker and longer.

Would you try this natural-looking hair colour trend for yourself? let us know in the comments below.

Main image credit: @gisele

This article originally appeared on marie claire.

Arielle is marie claire and InStyle's Senior Digital Beauty & Lifestyle Editor. Her work has taken her to lunch with Kim Cattrall, backstage with Shanina Shaik and on the red carpet with Margot Robbie. You can find her words on InStyle, marie claire and Women's Health.